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January 6, 2015Tuesday after Epiphany    Reading 1 1 Jn 4:7-10 Beloved, let us love one another,because love is of God;everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.In this way the love of God was revealed to us:God sent his only-begotten Son into the worldso that we might have life through him.In this is love:not that we have loved God, but that he loved usand sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Responsorial Psalm PS 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8 R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on...

January 5, 2015Memorial of St. John Neumann    Reading 1 1 Jn 3:22–4:6 Beloved:We receive from him whatever we ask,because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.And his commandment is this:we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,and love one another just as he commanded us.Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,and the way we know that he remains in usis from the Spirit whom he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every spiritbut test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,because many false prophets have gone...

(Snip) That’s quite a story: completely wrong in all of its particulars and in its larger point. Tyson mangles Genesis and misquotes Bush, not once but twice. He puts Bush’s (misquoted) comment in the wrong year and the wrong context. It actually comes from one of the most poignant speeches of his presidency. Bush was not talking not 9/11; he was eulogizing the seven astronauts who lost their lives on the space shuttle Columbia — a subject that Tyson supposedly cares about. And Bush never said “Our God.” He said: “The same Creator who names the stars also knows the...

Archdiocese of Washington From Magi to Wise Men – A Homily for Epiphany By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere are so many wonderful details in the Epiphany story: the call of the Gentiles, the nations, and their enthusiastic response, the significance of the star they see, and the gifts they bring, the dramatic interaction with Herod and their ultimate rejection of him in favor Christ.In this meditation I would like especially to follow these Magi, in their journey of faith to become wise men. As Magi, they followed the faint stars, distant points of light; as Wise Men they follow Jesus who...

WALTHAM, Mass. - A suburban Boston man is accused of killing his wife during an argument over a Christmas gift, reports CBS Boston. Julio Resto, 51, pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in Waltham District Court Wednesday afternoon in the death of his wife, 42-year-old Gloria Resto. He was ordered held without bail. Police say Resto first tried to strangle his wife and then stabbed her with a kitchen knife in their apartment in Waltham early Wednesday morning. Julio told police his wife was upset with him because he did not buy her a Christmas gift, reports the...

January 4, 2015The Epiphany of the Lord    Reading 1 Is 60:1-6 Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,the glory of the Lord shines upon you.See, darkness covers the earth,and thick clouds cover the peoples;but upon you the LORD shines,and over you appears his glory.Nations shall walk by your light,and kings by your shining radiance.Raise your eyes and look about;they all gather and come to you:your sons come from afar,and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see,your heart shall throb and overflow,for the riches of the sea...

January 3, 2015Christmas Weekday    Reading 1 1 Jn 2:29–3:6 If you consider that God is righteous,you also know that everyone who acts in righteousnessis begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on usthat we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Beloved, we are God’s children now;what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,for we shall see him as he is.Everyone who has this...

January 2, 2015Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church    Reading 1 1 Jn 2:22-28 Beloved:Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise...

January 1, 2015The Octave Day of ChristmasSolemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God    Reading 1 Nm 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites.Say to them:The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine uponyou, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly andgive you peace!So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8. R. (2a) May God bless us in his mercy.May...

Why is it that most people eventually abandon the idea of Santa Claus … and yet so many never abandon belief in an omnipotent government? Santa Claus is magic. His toy sack never empties, he traverses the globe faster than lightning, his reindeer never tire, his elves never strike, and he’s never too fat for the chimney. Awed by his powers, young kids approach the Jolly One clutching wish lists that itemize the objects of their “unbridled avarice,” as a popular Christmas movie put it. And why not? Santa’s little supplicants are prodded by plenty of parental encouragement. No toy...

Here in Blend Television we’re celebrating by counting down our some of our all time favorite holiday episodes, in an effort to boost your Christmas spirit. These aren’t the 12 best out there by any means, just twelve of our favorites. ... On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… Andy Griffith singing Away in a Manger. I saw this episode for the first time a few years ago – on Christmas Eve during an Andy Griffith Show marathon. There’s nothing like a little “Ange” to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This episode...

December 31, 2014The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas    Reading 1 1 Jn 2:18-21 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because...

A harmless symbol of Christmas cheer was once deemed so risky that the FDA had to regulate it. Tinsel once contained lead, which, as scientists realized in the 1960s, made it dangerous to kids. That prompted a deal between the FDA and tinsel makers to alter manufacturing methods, the American Chemical Society reports in a video. The 1972 change was at first kept secret, Popular Science reports, for fear “that many people preferring the lead variety would stockpile it,” an official said at the time. Believe it or not, that wasn’t the first time tinsel had posed a threat: One...

A friend on Facebook wrote that she and her husband were taking a walk the night after Christmas Day. They passed a neighbor out in his yard and wished him a merry Christmas. The neighbor paused and said, “Oh, you mean for next year?” The husband “told him that no, the wish was for this year since Christmas lasts twelve days and we’re only on day two. He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.’” The day after Christmas my husband and I were walking in our neighborhood retail area. I thought we might get our children some Christmas treats...

December 30, 2014The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas   Reading 1 1 Jn 2:12-17 I am writing to you, children,because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men,because you have conquered the Evil One. I write to you, children,because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,because you are strong and the word of God remains in you,and you have conquered...

A 7-year-old boy, who set out to prove Santa Claus is real, borrowed his brother’s GoPro camera and set it up Christmas Eve to record what happened in their living room. When he and his family reviewed the footage the next morning, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

VIDEO HERE The Holy See has released a radical feminist activist who bared her breasts in St Peter’s Square on Christmas Day and snatched the statue of Baby Jesus from the Vatican’s outdoor Nativity scene. The Holy See prosecutor met Yana Zhdanova and decided to order her release, according to Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi. The Ukrainian protester was also ordered to never enter Vatican City State, including St Peter’s Basilica, or other Vatican property outside the city-state’s walls. The Femen protester shouted “God is woman” when she uncovered her chest in the square, about an hour after...

Very quietly and under the radar, authorities in China have cracked down on Christmas celebrations in China, deeming them "Western spiritual pollution." As CNMNews reports, for several years, a virtual rush to convert to Christianity has been underway in China, both in its Protestant and Catholic versions. The Department of Education this year issued a directive to limit Christianity’s appeal to young people, banning Christmas events and celebrations in schools and kindergartens, deemed “kitsch” and “un-Chinese”. The crackdown has also been spreading to universities and colleges nationwide. The result is nowhere more evident than in Google's traffic in China...  As...

December 29, 2014The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas    Reading 1 1 Jn 2:3-11 Beloved:The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandmentsis a liar, and the truth is not in him.But whoever keeps his word,the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked. Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to youbut an...

In the past, this season was marked by a greater interest in divinity, the family hearth and the joy of children. Increasingly our society has been turning away from such simple human pleasures, replacing them with those of technology. Despite the annual holiday pageantry, in the West religion is on the decline, along with our society’s emphasis on human relationships. Atheism seems to be getting stronger, estimated at around 13 percent worldwide but much higher in such countries as Japan, Germany and China. “The world is going secular,” claims author Nigel Barber. “Nothing short of an ice age can stop...